My thoughts on Tyler Perry’s “For Colored Girls”

Usually I try to stay away from controversial topics but after having the opportunity to view this film last weekend I feel compelled to put my thoughts down into words.

I’m not a huge fan of Tyler Perry films. I watch them, I tolerate them. I’m not in love with them nor do I hate them. This is the first of his movies that I’ve actually paid to see in a movie theater. Let me just say that I do however admire Tyler Perry. By now we all know his rags to riches story and I have no choice but to admire a man who against all odds, still found the courage to pursue his dreams and become as successful as Perry has.

Most women who have seen For Colored Girls left the movie theater deep in thought. What were on their minds varied as for some this movie made them examine their own circumstances, past and present. For others like my mom and myself, we were a little overwhelmed by the depiction of poverty, violence and despair that emanated from these women’s lives

Now don’t get me wrong, all of those circumstances portrayed in For Colored Girls are applicable to some woman’s everyday life. However, for me I am hard pressed to identify with any of the characters in Perry’s films. For Colored Girls is no exception.

My honest opinion of the movie is that it was overkill. Perry seems to lack the knowledge of how to let just one problem dominate. Instead he inundates his audience with every possible problem known to man. For example, in Janet Jackson’s character’s case, not only was her husband cheating on her, but he was cheating with a man. He stole her money, blew it, lied about it, had to gall to act indignant when she confronted him about it and then gave her HIV. And not to mention that Janet was a lonely bitch who had no friends and spent all of her time in God awful make up and designer clothes while running a successful magazine in her whitewashed office.

So just from the aforementioned scenario we can devise that there was infidelity, theft, lying, incompetence, deceit, down low bi-sexual activity, involuntary manslaughter, brazenness, loneliness, illness and utter despair. Overkill, I think so.

Some find it offensive that his movies seem to portray black men in a very bad light but I know lots of good black men so I don’t get overly sensitive about it. I try to remember that when someone writes a book or gives advice, it’s from their perspective usually stemming from their personal experiences. Maybe in Perry’s eyes all black men are crap so hey, that’s what he writes.

I get that he was doing his best to interpret the book of Poems “For Colored Girl Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuf” but please, when I pay $10 to see a movie, I really do not need to be bombarded with rape, whorishness, utter stupidity (Loretta Divine’s Character ), sexual abuse, abandonment, back street abortion, homicide of cute children, alcoholism, spousal abuse, cultism, bitchiness, hoarding, sexually transmitted diseases (yes, more than one), backstabbing, infertility, poverty, infidelity, thievery, undercover gayness and those horrible wigs. Did I leave anything out?